Cookie cutter approach does not work in PR: Tarunjeet Rattan

As part of our latest series on ‘PR Conversation’, we at Adgully are speaking to some of the industry leaders from both PR agencies and the corporate communications world about how PR as a business and communication tool has evolved and grown over the years. In the last 10 years, PR has taken a different dimension, especially after the entry of social media in a big way. While the PR business has grown, some of the challenges that the industry is facing have also multiplied as clients are becoming more demanding and are expecting their consultants to be on their toes to manage their brand reputation, as news today travels fast and clients are expecting quick response and action in case of a crisis situation.

In this interaction with Adgully, Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner, Nucleus PR, offers several valuable lessons for budding entrepreneurs out there as she recounts her journey of turning an entrepreneur, the challenges that she faced initially and how she has been able to create a niche for her agency as a boutique agency amid a tough competitive scenario.

How has PR evolved in the last 10 years? Going forward, how will the industry shape up as the dynamics of the PR is changing with the acceleration of digital?

I joined when the industry in the wake of the dotcom bubble burst in 2002, when it was difficult to get a job. Our campus placements for communication management students were facing an onslaught from all other streams of management. The fight for placement gave me a taste of the competitiveness this industry brings in you. And this industry is competitive, let us not forget that. However, the tone you give to it is completely up to each one of us. I choose to add a flavour of camaraderie and healthy competition to it.

The PR industry has gone through a sea change over the last decade and a decade worth of growth this year. Traditional media outreach plans and standard way of working will not hold stead anymore. PR professionals will have to get creative with how they choose to create and manage a brand reputation using different mediums to achieve it. Media was already becoming a ‘part’ of the arsenal with more digital elements added to it. Collaboration between brands and agencies will become the norm. The future will belong to PR professionals who have a strong hold on the growing elements and know how to wield them with ease.

You turned an entrepreneur in the PR profession. What motivated you and how did the idea of starting your PR consultancy happen? How has been your journey as a PR entrepreneur so far? And what are the challenges that you encountered as an entrepreneur?

I was an enterprising student and ran two start-ups when I was in college with partners. This ended when I graduated. But the idea was always there. A life decision took me from Mumbai to Bangalore. In Bangalore, I discovered a thriving entrepreneur network and was instantly hooked on.

At some point I had always wanted to start something on my own. Being in Bangalore, a decade of experience under my belt and a will to do something creative in PR led me to start my own agency. When I started out, I was brilliant at what I did. However, I was in for a surprise. I had no idea that running an agency took much more than just knowing your profession. Interestingly, it were the challenges that I faced as an entrepreneur that pushed me towards my next business growth spurt.

Each obstacle challenged me. My determination to solve the issue in front of me and/or find resources that will help me do so also played a key role in the same. The key challenges that I faced included:

Business Smart: I loved my profession, but unfortunately I had no idea what it took to run a business. I jumped into it feet first. After stumbling through for a few years, I knew that I needed help to set things straight. I headed to my go-to method – education – to help me out of this jam. I applied and got selected for the mentorship projects with of Cherie Blair Foundation Mentorship Project, where my mentor helped me get the basics right and later via the National Entrepreneurship Network Mentorship Project I was able to set a path for the future. I continue to seek a mentor every couple of years who can challenge me and mentor me to the next level.
HR & Legal: India is a unique country when it comes to professional ethics. It took all my energy reserves to overcome the challenges of setting expectations along with implementing contracts with both client and team. It was a huge learning curve for me. My mentor stepped in and set a process for me, wherein one person in our team liaised with teams for HR and Legal separately…If you are not an expert in the field then hire one. I continue to learn from there to have a basic grasp, but I trust them completely to steer me in the right direction.
Perception: I was faced with a unique challenge when I started my firm that stumped me – PR needed PR. My first couple of weeks on every new client would go on hand holding them and washing away the sins of the previous agency. Some of the perception was deserved, but most was not. There was a clear gap between what PR was and how it was perceived by its buyers and how it was being practiced in the country. The PR industry suffered from a huge perception deficit and one of the easiest ways of rectifying that was by getting them to upskill collectively. But no one was keen on belling the cat. PRPOI was an innovation that came out of this necessity in 2008. I started #PR4PR and encouraged all my media friends and industry peers to start taking in inputs from us and the latter to start doing PR for their own firms. I knew that at some point this will culminate into goodwill for the entire industry.
Delegation: I am a huge self-motivator and have never had any bosses overlooking me once I learnt the ropes. This was a blessing as an employee, but as a business owner this became my failing when I started hiring a team. I learnt with the help of my business partner and mentor the value of team delegation and the patience (painstakingly) required to achieve it. It has taken me a fair number of years to learn this one. Today, I encourage my team managers to take the same journey and guide them on it.

How different are you as an agency and what are some of the interesting tools that you deploy to give the best in terms of result to your clients?

In the first 7 years of being a PR entrepreneur, I experimented with all formats of an agency and settled on boutique. Choosing to remain boutique made all the difference in how we are placed in the industry. We consciously choose to create a team of seasoned experts with the right attitude who had mastered their profession, could meet expectations, excel, and set the bar higher.

When we work on an account, we own it. Hence, we are selective about the clients we choose to work with because we become a direct extension of their communication team. Each member in my team does not handle more than 3-4 accounts, ensuring there is a set level of quality and creativity. We do a deep dive into their business to understand how communication can impact the bottomline. Strategic thinking and creative communication solutions have earned us a seat at the table. Being boutique gives us the space and time to win that seat, without which we would not really be working with that client.

I believe PR requires focus and attention of a seasoned communicator. Cookie cutter approach does not work and will not work going forward. PR professionals will have to shape up and deliver to keep the seat at the table.

We have a healthy waiting list of clients wanting to work with us. Some we shuffle, but those that are not suited to our specific skill set or compete with our existing portfolio, we are happy to recommend to our peers in the industry.

While we do use technology tools that give us an advantage, our real strength is the creativity we bring to our work. As the first member of the Asian sub-continent of PR Boutiques International (PRBI), an international network of boutique PR firms we have access to brilliant, experienced minds from all over the world who chip in on campaigns and challenges with innovative solutions that give us an edge. I am currently serving as the Vice President of the network. Together, we help companies become successful worldwide.

We all speak about external communication, but equally important is internal communication, which needs to be handled with kid gloves. What are your views on this and how important is the role of internal communication, especially during the pandemic when you had to stay engaged with your employees?

Internal communication has a huge role to play. Almost 5 years ago, I remember having a meeting with the marketing head of an MSME and explaining to them why internal communication is essential for them to get right if they truly want external communication to succeed. I believe that each employee is your best and true brand ambassador and should be first focused on rather than external stars. The marketing manager heard me out but asked me to focus on media. A couple of months into our association I met the CEO, who asked me how they can add more power and depth to their brand reputation. My only answer was: Internal communication. We worked for the next five years and together hauled the system from top to bottom, making changes in each department, how the function and how communication is sent to them. We backed it up with deliverables and made every department head responsible for it. While we made changes in internal communication, we also mapped out the external communication journey alongside. We slowly started seeing a change and steadily transformed it into a brand with purpose.

That was one of my most successful implementations of internal communication before it became a buzzword. Today, we encourage all our clients to let us take a shot at it or work with their internal teams to ensure that internal communication keeps pace with external.

This also means it is equally essential for my own agency. I place a very high premium on internal communication and personally stay involved with all internal key campaigns. During this pandemic, internal communication was vital to keeping our energy, motivation and mental wellness intact.

PR measurement and effectiveness of PR has always been a subject of debate. As a PR professional, what steps the PR industry should take to bring in uniformity so that everyone speaks one language when it comes to PR measurement?

And it will always remain a debate. The only way this will be laid to rest is when a majority start utilising a similar method of evaluating PR success. This could be a tough task as well as the PR solution for every company requires a fair amount of customization the PR evaluation will also follow suit. What we can, however, stress upon is a healthy debate on the subject so that it allows for more customisation and creative solutions.

What I personally encourage is this debate in all PR and media panels, educating communication students and possible clients (irrespective of whether we sign them up or not) at various forums. Additionally, we also encourage the same at every discussion on PRPOI creating a positive conversation on the subject. More dialogue will create more possible solutions.

Getting the right skillset and training has always been a challenge in the PR profession. What is your view on the same and what would be the valuable tips that you would like to give to the budding young PR professionals?

Getting the right skill set will only get you a foot in the door. Every day after that you must learn and upskill yourself to keep that job and move ahead. This has to be understood by all the budding professionals. Do not be arrogant about existing knowledge. The pace with which our industry and trends change that will become outdated quickly. You need to be able to consume information, patiently analyse and make sense of it on the go.

Another important life skill to inculcate is being teachable. This will hold one in good stead no matter what position you are in. There is a thin line between confidence and overconfidence. I have seen a lot of professionals fall out of the profession because they are adamant about their existing knowledge and want to finish familiar.

Upskill takes will. Options to upskill are numerous. Seek a mentor from the industry, go back to school, attend industry forums and free online sessions.

Do you feel the traditional role of interpersonal communication, which was so critical to the profession, has somehow been put to the back burner because of too much virtual engagement? How are you experiencing that, is it bringing down the efficiency of the agency?

When we first entered the pandemic, it took all of us some time to get used to the video call routine. Fatigue set in quickly because of the volume of networking calls and social networking our work involves. We missed interpersonal communication, especially when it came to meeting our media friends. The day-to-day interaction is greatly missed even today. We cannot wait to get back to it.

When fatigue set in, we took a break for several weeks from video calls and switched to normal voice calls. We restricted video calls to once in 15 days. It cut down on the video call fatigue drastically and we would look forward to catching up with each other.